So, uh... -ahem-... This isn't actually a 'chronological' X-3 that I have in mind. This is actually an 'alternate universe' story that I have going on that takes place during X-2.

And before you say, 'Oh boy, a story about bland, meaningless OCs and their bland, meaningless drama in a soon-to-be bland, meaningless Eternal Calm. Woo hoo.', nuh-uh. This story uses existing characters. In fact... it's not even set in Spira.

That's right. 'X-2 AU' is set in the realm of the Farplane, featuring your favourite dead heroes and mine: Tidus, Jecht, Auron and Braska; forced to abandon their peaceful afterlives and set off to fight for not only the safety of the world, but the balance of life and death itself.

Story:

Now, I haven't got a phonebook-sized script set out for all the events of the game, including everyone's dialogue. Heck, I don't have anything written down at all: I just keep vague ideas in my head. However, I have mostly fleshed out the actual 'villain' that I have in said mind. This is actually a threat that I made up for a fanfiction of mine, but I feel it could work just as well in a 'canon' game as fanfiction.

Liquid Nightmare.

Originally inspired by another fanfiction and also by the main disease in Trauma Team, Liquid Nightmare is a mutated form of a malicious energy found in pyreflies, which counteracts 'pure' energy to maintain a pyrefly's natural balance. Thousands of years ago, a pyrefly researcher from Bevelle (named Rhiak) had accidentally extracted the Nightmare (non-mutant) energy from a deceased spirit that had died of an unknown cause. Nightmare began to multiply in mass and take on a living body of its own, influencing the researcher and driving him to the point of insanity, and eventually to death. It was then that he turned into a fiend, but no ordinary fiend. It was a patterned black and purple fiend with ungodly destructive capabilities and intentions. He was sent after he was proven to be too much of a danger, but still maintained his fiendish form. For he was half-living and half-dead. That, and he wasn't actually sent to the Farplane, but the Fiend World: haven and homeland of the fiends.

Over the years, Rhiak went unnoticed as a carrier of Liquid Nightmare, but his condition started to subtly affect the fiends around him. They were displaying odd behaviours and having sudden urges to attack everything on sight. This was the Liquid Nightmare in Rhiak's body summoning other sources of Nightmare energy to conjoin with him, thus the Nightmare in foreign bodies were multiplying and quickly overtaking them. The sudden outbreak of Liquid Nightmare-infused fiends eventually led to the 'Monarchy War,' in which humans from Spira and monsters from the Fiend World fell out due to their different political opinions and began to turn on one another. Under orders from Aeshma: the king of the fiends and the Farplane's ambassador, the Fiend World was cut off from the rest of Spira due to the battle, and all the fiends on the battlefields were left behind in Spira to fend for themselves. Rhiak was the only Liquid Nightmare fiend left in Spira.

He was eventually found by a group of soldiers, whom recognised him from the war. Instead of helping him out, Rhiak was captured and imprisoned deep beneath Bevelle, where he couldn't harm anybody. Nobody exactly knows what happened to him, whether he died naturally or still lives to this day. Nobody has ever really gone down there to emerge with the truth.

Cut to the present day, two years after Sin's demise. Tidus and Jecht, the two remaining creations of the fayth and renowned slayers of Yu Yevon's terrifying Final Aeon, reside in a secret area of the Farplane along with the human forms of the fayth. One night, Bahamut calls for them, delivering a message from Ambassador Aeshma, inviting them to the annual festival celebrating their freedom from the thousand-year-old curse, set in the Central Farplane between the Djose Continent and the Wilderia Continent. They both agree to it, and having being supplied, set off to descend to the depths. However, the journey to the party would be much more than that...

Gameplay:

I've been reading Beyond Reality, a really good FFX fanfiction, (greatly looking forward to the next chapter!) and the author posted notes on how the fanfiction would play like if it were a game. Honestly, I think his/her idea for a battle system is fantastic. I think it would fit in just right without making things too difficult.

Basically, the idea is to have a 'Tier' system. Each character will have set and exclusive jobs to themselves, and will unlock stronger and more complicated jobs the higher their Tier goes. For example, the author decided to have Tidus' 'Tier 1' job as a Warrior. Then for 'Tier 2-1,' a Dark Knight. Then for 'Tier 2-2,' a Dragoon. He/she also decided to include 'Bonus Tiers,' which in Tidus' case is a Dream Master. These are optional, fun little jobs which shouldn't make sense in a story narrative, but offer unique skills and abilities in battle.

I want to expand on this system, giving the Tier system a '1, 2, 3...' format to make it easier to understand, but also give the tiers two separate modes. These are 'Anarchy Mode' and 'Overworld Mode'. Anarchy Mode is used in combat and fighting areas, while Overworld Mode is used outside of battlefields, such as in towns, bases, open areas and inside houses. OM doesn't use weapons. AM and OM can be told apart by their slight differences in overall outfit. (OM could be sophisticated and friendly, while AM could be more free and threatening.) AM and OM could also, depending on what Tier it is, offer slightly different jobs and thus, different playstyles.

Let's take Tidus' Tier Tree, for example. I'll use a few jobs from Beyond Reality, but I'll decide the rest.

(Tier 1-AM: Warrior) (Tier 1-OM: Time Mage (Can speed up or slow time to make certain events happen))

(Tier 2-AM: Spry Striker) (Tier 2-OM: Thief (Can sneak into and loot from storages. Can also eavesdrop on people.))

I actually like the ideas you posted. I really like the gameplay, which for me is fun and easy, and i like that liquidnightmare detail, and in the realm of the Farplane! AwesomeIf you want, you can keep explaining your ideas CrystalOfLies :-)

For X-3, I would've preferred a new threat that had ties to the old threat in some ways.The idea of beckoning truthfully isn't a bad one, but I wouldn't want the ostensible big bad to be Sin-- it has ties to old political Spira which is too brash a move to play in the conceptualization of a second sequel. I want Yuna and co. to be free, and having Sin as the enemy from the beginning restricts that a fair bit.

I'd imagine a snowballing of sorts within the Yevon system. The game would take place give or take ten years in the future, Tidus and Yuna can have a kid or two, everybody is getting along peacefully and happily, and a small problem rises up due to some new personalities in Bevelle.They investigate this issue as Yuna has her motherlike quality to look over people and Tidus's insatiable curiosity, and that spirals into further depth as they come to understand the motives and role these people play in the large scheme of things.

Beckoning would be involved, because that could have ties later on to older enemies who would be orchestrating the whole thing.Not that I'm feigning cowardice of a brave new idea to drive the antagonist, but I don't think there would be insurrection or calamity in Spira after FFX-2 unless somebody from the past was irrationally vengeful at new Spira or our cast.

and I want to see Seymour be a crazy fu.cker again.It'd be a place for reflection and introspection between whatever main cast is had, seeing how old enemies harbour stale grudges against their changed personalities.

That's spitballing, though. It's how I'd imagine it go down; something favourably along these lines.I'd play it, at least.

I like the idea of Tidus and Yuna together (since SE doesnt want them together apparently...*cough* novella *cough*)And that Seymour returns! Yay! I wanted to see that freak again! (Even though we had to fight him like four times...xD)

Keep telling your thoughts and ideas! And thank you for CrystalOfLies and Internal Medicine Doctor for telling us your ideas, if you want you can keep making details of your ideas for X-3.

More detail about Liquid Nightmare: the infection isn't actually contagious through physical contact, but by emotional means. Whenever someone displays a great amount of hatred and/or sin, the Nightmare is drawn to their actions. Nightmare alone is what turns the unsent into fiends due to their envy of the living, thus birthing 'unnatural' fiends with the mindset of an aggressive animal. However, in order to create Liquid Nightmare, the raw Nightmare energy has to both be awakened and warped by the influence of an intelligent host to the Liquid Nightmare. In this case, it was Rhiak. Since the fiends in the Fiend World were starting their bickering with the humans at the same time that Rhiak was sent, this created an army of Liquid Nightmare-infused fiends, giving them a great advantage over the humans in terms of power and dominance.

In order to create one of these 'intelligent hosts,' which are called 'Nightmare Cores,' the person will have had to make a pact with an existing Nightmare Core, either physically or spiritually. However, in order to do this, the person will have to have a purely malicious soul, such as being destined to cause chaos or freely deciding to follow a path of darkness. Nightmare Cores are therefore much more capable of handing their awesome potential in battle, and, despite their monstrous forms, have more human-like qualities than normal Liquid Nightmare fiends, such as being able to speak or plan strategies. Physical Nightmare Cores specify in hand-to-hand combat and bulk, whilst spiritual Nightmare Cores specify in magic and cognitive.

Rhiak was born a sheltered boy whose soul was instantly tainted by the sights of bloodshed over disagreements and sacrifices over broken relics. He grew up thinking that life was all about the satisfaction of man and fiendslaughter, and developed a hobby of collecting pyreflies from all around the bigoted city and beyond. Upon coming across a lone dead corpse of a man in a vast valley, a dangerous-looking black spirit rose from it, declaring Rhiak as 'the one who will proclaim death reborn'. Rhiak couldn't do anything as the spirit merged with him, and he eventually became the first Nightmare Core. Strangely enough, the corpse was still there, and was eventually found and sent.

Back to the story:

Tidus and Jecht said their farewells to the fayth, as they prepared to jump into a vortex. Valefor, who had become very close friends with Tidus, senses something strange, but is too late to warn them. Halfway through the dimensional vortex, Tidus and Jecht are suddenly ambushed by a very fast and very reactive monster with gigantic claws and a hollow body. Tidus, being the faster and more agile one, escapes most of the machine-like monster's attacks. Jecht isn't so lucky. After a few beating, the monster suddenly grabs Jecht and begins to swim through the walls of the vortex with him. Tidus desperately tries to save him, but ends up getting brutally impaled in the side, rendering him unconscious and slips out of the vortex, spiralling into an unknown area.

When he wakes up, he's in a forest-like area, surrounded by trees and flowers. Remembering what happened, he immediately springs to his feet, but the deep laceration knocks him back down. He looks at his wound. Heavy amounts of plasma (Farplane equivalent of blood) are flowing out, and a long metal part is wedged into him. He decides to walk around for help, but is promptly disapproved of by 'natural' fiends. Eventually, his consciousness slips out again. The last thing he hears and sees is a squawk, and a giant white two-legged bird kneeling before him.

My god you have great imagination!I like how detailed the story is, and poor Jecht, and i like that Valefor is Tidus' friend :-)I really really like the Liquid Night,mare and the Nightmare core addition, its very nice.And poor Tidus, ouch, all that fight and fainting alot.When you said a bird was in front of Tidus, i thought it might be a chocobo , but you said it was white, hmmm maybe some of your creations!And you left a cliffhanger!

Actually, there's a white chocobo in Lightning Returns called 'Angel of Valhalla,' so there are white chocobos, just a rarer colour than others.

Basically, the white bird is a chocobo called Cirrus (as in cirrus clouds) which is the partner of somebody that I have yet to announce. She's faster than normal chocobos, being a rare breed, and can also hover in the air for a few seconds, but lacks the ability to hide/camouflage because of her colour. Since chocobos aren't classified as fiends, Cirrus lacks ties with them and is often picked on by them.

By the way, I found two more interesting concept arts about FFX. You may want to go over to the FFX Concept Art board and check them out.

Since I'm here I might as well continue with my story. Right, let's see what I can remember at the moment...

(Keep in mind, this next part might be a little bit strange to you if you've ever played FFX-2. I'm reminding you all, this is alternate universe, so it's not going to be completely consistent with the canon X-2. There will be changes here and there to fit the story. We good? Okay. Let's move on.)

So after Tidus passes out again, he wakes up in a bed in a dimly lit room after having a bizarre dream sequence which, if this was a game, would probably be the trippy intro FMV a la Kingdom Hearts, complete with a Japanese song and a title-drop and everything. He mainly wakes up because of the mixture of horrible smells coming from the room next door. He goes to check it out, and is baffled by what he sees. It seemed to be some sort of alchemy or chemical laboratory. He also notices some wispy balls of light trapped in multiple jars depending on their colour and size, labelled by a strange language that he had never seen before. From the corner of his eye, he saw Cirrus staring at him blankly, before chirping and setting off at a blinding speed before he could approach it. He decides to follow it through the tunnel, climbing and rolling out of an angled tree trunk planted in a hill.

Cue the end of the prologue, and the beginning of Chapter 1. Following Cirrus through the forest is the first mission, and also acts as a tutorial for navigating and interacting with the 'Overworld Mode' section of the game. Such as jumping, balancing, looking for secrets, solving puzzles, pretty much like the 3D Legend of Zelda games, only with more freedom and control. As you go deeper into the forest, you would notice that the scenery changes from a lush green and yellow-ish sky to more autumn-y with a radiant blue sky, and leave piles which you can destroy.

Eventually, Tidus catches up to Cirrus, but only because she stopped suddenly. Suddenly, she sticks her head into a pile of bushes, and drags out another man wearing a cloak. She sheds one of her feathers and rubs it on him, which seems to bring him back to consciousness. Tidus is a little put-off by the man, since his voice sounded pretty similar to his. However, when the man turns around and sees him, he freezes. Then he pulls his hood and reveals his face.

...He looks almost exactly like Tidus.

The two understandably freak out, the man moreso since he thinks that Tidus is a fiend using 'doppelgänger powers' to cause chaos around Equinox, which is the forest's name. Now we know why part of the forest inherited a different season. After they calm down, the man suddenly gets angry at him. Apparently, he was scavenging the forest for ingredients and harvesting 'bulk' from the fiends' pyreflies, when Tidus' crash landing sent shock waves across Equinox and caused the man to fall off the trees. He sends Cirrus into the bushes to look for his staff, which looks like an overly decorated dream-catcher attached to a webbed stick. They then take off, the man not saying another word to Tidus, and Cirrus looking back at them curiously. He then decides to follow them, not having anywhere else to go.

It eventually ends up with Tidus and the man, known as Shuyin, introducing themselves, though they got off on the wrong foot. Cut to the next day after a somewhat lengthy cutscene detailing Shuyin and Cirrus' lifestyle and what they do. Cirrus has been Shuyin's partner for centuries, and she acts as his ride, extra storage, and backup support. (her feathers have healing properties thanks to her breed)

Shuyin is a 'pyremancer,' an occupation which is only known to exist in the Farplane, and not in very plentiful quantities. What they do is collect waste material that grows in pyreflies ('Bulk' is their local nickname. 'Ethereal Powder' is their scientific one.) and, using all sorts of methods like fusing them with magic or with other types of ethereal powder, create special concoctions that can be used in the world, or in battle, if stored in a container. Things like instantly growing plants, shrinking down objects, morphing into food and even shaping the land if the concoctions get really advanced. Some of them can even shape the bodies of a person. That's why over the years, Shuyin developed a partly fiendish body thanks to accidents and failed experiments. (Longer fingers, slightly bent legs, scales on parts of the skin and unnatural movements)

He's implemented a special kind of ethereal powder into his dream-catcher staff, which allows it to record and copy enemy spells that it recognises and allows Shuyin to use that certain spell. So gameplay-wise, his Tier 1 classes would be Pyremancer (OM) and Blue Mage (AM).

The next segment is basically all about the 'Anarchy Mode' section of the game, Tidus getting a makeshift wooden sword (or a bokken, seeing how this is an Asian-oriented Final Fantasy game and all, plus it would pay homage to his Kingdom Hearts persona) and Shuyin with his empty (at the moment) dream-catcher staff. Basically it goes through the mechanics of manoeuvring and abilities and how everybody (or Tidus and Shuyin) plays differently. Tidus is faster and stronger, while Shuyin has more defensive capabilities. Eventually, we get into our first boss fight, against a giant white-yellow furred behemoth covered in vines, dubbed 'The Dumb Beast' by Shuyin. This is where he gets his first Blue Mage ability: Vine Snare. (Low nature damage and a chance of paralysis.) Also, some things about assistance (like using Cirrus to heal) and interacting with the battleground to get the advantage.

The next day, a storm pours upon Equinox. However, Shuyin is concerned, claiming that storm clouds aren't normally that dense. However, lightning flashes from a rift that opens in the sky, and weird fiends suddenly fly out of them and surge towards Equinox. They brandish their weapons and a fight occurs, only it's scripted to where it's impossible to win. Weakened, they get the mindset to retreat. Fiends and plants are getting vaporised by these strange monsters as purple gas leaks from the rifts. Turns out the gas is poisonous and reacts strongly to pyreflies. Let's keep this short: Shuyin finds out Cirrus is missing, he gets hit by the poison, falls unconscious, Tidus finds Cirrus and puts Shuyin's body on her, they run to the edge of Equinox, which turns to be a secluded island in the sky, having no choice they jump off without knowing how high up they are, a lightning bolt strikes them both and they fly in opposite directions towards the mainland.

(Edit: I forgot about the metal component that Tidus was struck with, lul. After their introduction, Shuyin treats his wounds and quite painfully rips out the metal from his body. He doesn't seem to care that Tidus was in a great deal of pain. They take a closer look at it: it was made out of multiple metal compounds compressed together to make an incredibly sturdy and sharp material. Tidus is reminded of the monster that attacked him and Jecht, and asks Shuyin how to get off Equinox. He laughs and says that he better be prepared for a long drop, but should probably wait until he's fully recovered. He gives the metal to Tidus, which he puts in his magic backpack. (Come on, you need an explanation for your seemingly bottomless inventory.) This will come into play later.

Later that night, Shuyin makes sure Tidus isn't awake, and decides to experiment with Tidus' plasma that he extracted from the wound. Since he's a creation of the fayth, his plasma has confusing and bizarre properties, including having traces of an unknown pathogen in them. Shuyin once again freaks out, and encapsulates the plasma into the container again.)

Now, more about the gameplay.

As I said, Overworld Mode is almost a completely different game from Anarchy Mode. That being said, the stats, such as Attack, Magic and Defence, all take on a new role in Overworld Mode. The higher the stats, the more effective the characters are in that particular field.

Hitpoints stays the same.Attack turns into Dexterity. Allows members to do tasks with their hands. (lockpicking, balancing, juggling, etc.) Vigor turns into Strength. Allows members to pick up heavy objects and destroy large obstacles.Defence turns into Endurance. Allows members to take less damage from physical causes. (fall damage, setting off traps, crashing into walls, etc.)Magic stays the same, but you can't use offensive spells.Magic Defence turns into Resistance. Allows members to take less damage from natural causes. (weather, temperature, poison, etc.)Speed (how many attacks you can deal in a combo with one person) turns into Agility. Measures how fast somebody can run. (Agility is measured in levels. Tidus could be Fast, but Auron could be Slow.)Luck turns into Charisma. Can unlock special options while talking to NPCs. (Negotiating with shopkeepers, persuading people to give special information, etc.)

This'll be the last part, unfortunately. I don't want to hog all the space on this thread! XD

This last part will be the summary of the (unfinished) plot that I have in mind, including major events and all. While doing that, I might as well explain how the Farplane would look like if it were seen in a game.

The idea of a design I have for the Farplane is basically to just make it look very, very colourful and weird. Different sections of the Farplane will have different appearances and whatnot. (Like, in FFX when you enter the Farplane, the sky is yellow with tons of flowers and waterfalls everywhere, and also has a blue sun for some reason. In X-2 when you actually get to explore it, it mainly consists of floating islands and purple flowers, and the sky's very dark and has the Aurora Borealis in it. Maybe deep within the Farplane, the land breaks up and it starts getting more dangerous, or maybe it's to do with the Farplane instability at the time of X-2.) In terms of layout, the Farplane is divided into 'sectors' which defines the different levels of altitude, and, like Spira, the land is divided into two parts: the Djose Continent and the Wilderia Continent. The closer you get to Djose, the more towns there are, whereas Wilderia has lots of open space and little to no towns. In that way, the Farplane is kind of like an inverted alternate Spira, only obviously with different landmarks and continent shapes.

So it'd be like:

Troposector (Low): This is where the mainland lies, along with a few low-hanging floating islands and some small mountains.

Stratosector (Medium): The altitude where most of the floating islands hang within, as well as some flying carrier vehicles and birds. The rest of the taller mountains end here, with the exception of one. This sector is also where Equinox is.

Mesosector (High): Very few floating islands reside here, but are said to contain ancient treasures within them. This is largely known as the 'Angel Habitat' where any person who comes within range is said to have some of their pyreflies condense into wings, in which they can fly around in part of the Mesosector with. The tallest mountain in the Farplane, the Aero Mesa, ends here. People climb up to the top of the Aero Mesa so that they can sprout wings and experience the Angel Habitat.

Thermosector (Very High): Nothing is said to reside in the area above the clouds. The air is so thin, it's nearly impossible to survive. It's rumoured that this sector once acted as a portal to the Fiend World, but since the connection's been severed, nobody knows what is up there now.

Now, to conclude the story with a summary:

Tidus crashes onto the mainland, and Shuyin and Cirrus are nowhere to be found. He's in a field, and his crash landing attracts quite a few tourists. They make way for two more main characters: Auron and Braska, whom were on the way to a mountain town for a meeting. They get away from the other people and get acquainted again. They ask where Jecht is, Tidus says that it's a long story, and that they should head to a town before doing anything. He looks up to where he was falling from, and finds out that Equinox is being covered by the clouds. It must have been a long drop.

So they get to the town, Tidus tells them everything, and they conclude by saying that they need to rescue Jecht. Before they head out into the public, they say that Tidus needs to change out of his clothes. (they're ripped and dirty because of what happened) He then recalls a package that Valefor gave him, and he opens it, revealing a strange blue shapeshifting cloth. The note on it says that this was the best material that Shiva could make, and that he needs to look at least decently royal in public, seeing as how he defeated Sin and all. Cue Tidus wearing it like a trenchcoat. Now we have his permanent look, and the game finally explains the Tier system.

We get introduced to shops and interactions, Tidus gets a proper sword made out of the metal that he was struck with, yadda yadda, let's move on. The group finds Cirrus and Shuyin in a nearby jungle, and at first Shuyin doesn't recognise Tidus. He's noticeably more shaken and paranoid about his surroundings, and seems jumpy at every little thing. Some fiend attacks later, Shuyin joins the party permanently, though it's just to be kept safe from the fiends. Now it's on to the next town.

Some events later, the town gets invaded by the strange fiends that attacked Equinox. It's then we're introduced to Liquid Nightmare fiends, though dubbed 'Mysterious fiends' at this time. Think of the oversouled fiends that you find during X-2. Now imagine them stronger, and not possible to be defeated at this point. So the main objective is to just avoid the fiends and find a safe spot. Tidus has short flashbacks to when he was escaping from Dream Zanarkand, and they then bump into a strange human-like but monstrous looking person, introducing himself as a Nightmare Core. He then takes off, claiming to have fulfilled his purpose. It's then they realise that almost all the townsfolk have been annihilated, and were being carried into a rift by the other Liquid Nightmare fiends.

Since I don't know what to do after this, I'll skip to the major story parts. They run into the machine-like monster again, and funnily enough, Jecht managed to hold onto its grasp all this time. They rescue him. They all reunite, and Jecht joins the party. They then remember the party they must go to, so that happens. At the party, after some cutscenes, Shuyin runs into Lenne, his old partner and love interest. They also find Aeshma at the party, and he talks to them in private about Liquid Nightmare, and how he witnessed its rampage thousands of years ago. He explains Nightmare Cores, and theorises that they're raiding hateful towns and capturing dead spirits to turn them into Liquid Nightmare fiends for their massive army. Shuyin remembers Equinox, and asks why they would raid his home. Aeshma doesn't know, since he's just theorising, but then suggests that they try to go to Equinox and defeat whatever Nightmare Core resides there. He directs them to go to the top of Aero Mesa and drop down to Equinox from the Angel Habitat. but not before enhancing their weapons with 'purity energy' to counteract Liquid Nightmare and defeat the fiends. Tidus then remembers the gas that Shuyin had been hit with that time, and reminds him about it. He replies by saying he never saw that kind of gas before, but Tidus begins to wonder.

Since Shuyin and Lenne are pyremancers, they manage to, after convincing Tidus and Jecht to give up some of their plasma, (the unknown pathogen seems to be a magic amplifier carried over from the fayth) enhance the party's weapons with purity energy. Everybody's weapons now gets a special multiplier against Liquid Nightmare enemies, as well as the ability to actually defeat them. They get to Equinox, kill the Nightmare Core, another vague tragic-villain dialogue, Equinox is saved. By this point, Shuyin becomes braver and more attached with the party, deciding to stay with them, but keep Cirrus behind to keep her safe. Lenne stays behind, too, glad to be home after all this time.

Meanwhile throughout the whole journey, Tidus is having weird dream sequences about a spirit talking to him. Near the end of the game, we get a clear picture of what he looks like. He also looks very similar to Tidus, but somewhat closer to Shuyin. When Tidus gets knocked out at one point by a now-insane Shuyin, he enters another dream sequence. Yet, it feels real somehow. The spirit reveals himself as a Miracle, a entirely pure soul free of Nightmare energy, and was also part of an experiment in Zanarkand long ago.

About 3000 years ago, when machina had advanced and was officially given its own term, an elitist group of scientists lead by the leader of Bevelle at the time was working on the invincible human being: one that would never turn into a fiend and could be resurrected from the dead easily. A not-dead Shuyin at this time was a pyremancer-in-training, and upon stumbling onto the secret project, volunteered in hopes to learn more about the arts of pyremancery. They led him to the gigantic machina contraption, which was designed to break down pyreflies into particles. The team planned to extract the purity energy, amplify it with a pathogen found in the aeons, and give the energy back to Shuyin. But then something went wrong. They managed to extract the miracle spirit, but the Nightmare in Shuyin immediately took advantage of the empty space and he went wild. He trashed the place, killed the scientists, and ran away to the Calm Lands, where the energy proved too much for him and he died. Rhiak found his body, and the Liquid Nightmare in Shuyin naturally made a pact with him. With the Purity and the Nightmare energy gone, Shuyin's body was now an empty vessel, with only his memories before the accident to accompany him to the Farplane.

When the fayth created Dream Zanarkand, the Miracle was drawn to Tidus since he coincidentally looked just like Shuyin. He rested within his spirit, only awakening when he sensed Shuyin nearby. Tidus takes the chance to ask one nagging question: why did he look just like Shuyin? The Miracle suggests that maybe Tidus, being a dream based off multiple people in Zanarkand, just managed to look similar to him. Or maybe the Miracle influenced his appearance over the years since they had become one person in some way. He says that there might be a way to save Shuyin from becoming a Liquid Nightmare fiend, and that is to use the Miracle's spirit and let it merge with Shuyin's body so that he can become a balanced spirit once again.

They go to Lenne and upon hearing the predicament, agrees right away to extract the Miracle. They face off against Vegnagun (the machina used in the project turned into a life-draining superweapon that's been affecting the Farplane) and follow it through the rift into the Farplane Core, turned into a facility that makes Liquid Nightmare fiends. Auron, Jecht and Braska face off against Rhiak at the heart (he conjoined with Vegnagun, making a Nightmare Core/machina hybrid) while Tidus goes to find Shuyin, but it's too late. He couldn't hold out and became a Liquid Nightmare. Meanwhile Rhiak reveals his plan.

He hid in the Farplane Core all these years, after using a newly-built Vegnagun from a thousand years ago to blast a hole in Bevelle's Underground and escaping to the Core. He then made his way around, finding malicious souls to build his secret army. With the help of Sin killing everybody, and everybody's fear and hatred of it, they built a Liquid Nightmare clan in no time, and waited until Sin was dead and everybody was distracted to unleash their chaos. Rhiak wanted to quench his thirst for bloodshed, as developed from his childhood. He wanted to rip open the portal to the Fiend World again and merge two realms of the dead into one, creating more bloodshed between the two species. He would then make the entire Farplane his army, and send it to invade Spira, making the greatest war humanity would ever see. It would be an apocalyptic world full of insanity, and when another species rebuilt Spira up, he would do it all again. And again. Until he died.

The Liquid Nightmare in the facility would then merge with Vegnagun, ejecting all four of the warriors out and flying away up into the sky. And then something about the aeons/fayth coming and the Miracle merging with Tidus to make Purity Aeons, then they set off to fight the god-like machina and Rhiak in an epic final battle.

The facility is destroyed with a gigantic pure attack, restoring the Farplane Core to its original beauty as the Liquid Nightmare fiends are turned back to normal. The aeons celebrate, and the others find the destroyed Vegnagun along with a shaken, broken Rhiak turned back to normal. Meanwhile, Tidus lands on the top chamber of Vegnagun, beaten, ripped and tired from the battle. His sword is also broken and unusable. He hears Shuyin on the other side. Miracle comes out, greatly used up from the last fight, and tells Tidus that Shuyin hasn't turned back to normal; the Liquid Nightmare became his whole spirit. He needs to merge with Shuyin. However, Miracle tells Tidus something: if the Purity energy invades his spirit, it has a great chance of wiping out Shuyin's acquired memories after he got hit by the gas, which means he wouldn't remember anything about the adventure, apart from meeting Tidus. He grimly accepts this, them having developing a brotherly bond throughout the journey. Miracle then says that it's been an honour getting to know him and his life, and disappears for the final time.

He confronts Shuyin, they have a last quick talk, and he turns into a large Liquid Nightmare fiend. Realising that he doesn't have a weapon, Tidus has to fight with his fists. Cue epic final battle that starts you off as weak, yet you get stronger as you fight more. Tidus then manages to rip open Shuyin's skin, summon Miracle's spirit and blast it right into his heart. He turns back to normal, his chest still open, they have a last nonsensical talk as his memories fade, and they both pass out.

Cue the ending with Shuyin in a hospital bed, him being innocent and not remembering anything, everybody walks in, Shuyin just barely remembers Tidus and they reconcile, some other things, ending speech, yadda yadda, credits. Post-ending scene with a first-person view emerging from the ocean while looking straight up into the sky, 'The End' scene.

If this was a game, I'd probably name it after my fanfiction: "Final Fantasy X: Road of Avidity." As in, the road to getting the power to beat up Liquid Nightmare. Yeah, it's pretty sucky. XD

Wow...an hour and half? Jesus what a story! it took me time to read it, but I appreciate thet you took your time to tell me your story, and it i like the idea of Shuyin and Tidus having a brother like bond, i like how u can describe so many details, u developed it amazingly, and thanks, i enjoyed it too

Nah, this actually isn't a written fanfiction of mine. I just took the concept of the threat (Liquid Nightmare) that I made for another existing fanfiction of mine, and wrote it into a... canon-alternate-universe, I guess. This story inevitably has flaws (I kinda brainfarted at the explanation for Tidus' and Shuyin's similar appearances. I'll just stick with the reincarnation theory in X-2, thank you very much. :S) but to be honest, it is Final Fantasy X, a game that's lore is so complicated and weird, that some things even get lost in translation. Plus, I just don't have time to iron out the flaws and inconsistencies. This is a rough planning, after all.